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Puffball and The handmaid's tale : the influence of pregnancy on the construction of female identity

Betts, Lenore (2002-12)

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002.

Thesis

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis uses an analysis of Fay Weldon's Puffball and Margaret Atwood's The
Handmaid's Tale to explore the construction of identity, particularly female identity.
It takes into consideration the influence of both biology and culture on identity and
explores how, within the context of the patriarchal societies depicted by the novels,
female identity is closely linked to reproductive function. It examines how the
construction of female identity based on reproductive function further objectifies the
female body in society, and how it can aid patriarchal domination and oppression of
women. The analysis of the novels draws on both essentialist and social
constructionist feminist approaches to oppression and female identity. The essentialist
approach views female biological difference (reproductive function) as responsible
for the way in which women are oppressed. The social constructionist view argues
that female oppression stems from the social construction of female identity around
concepts of motherhood and femininity. The thesis takes both approaches into account
as it seeks to explain how patriarchy oppresses women through the construction of
female identity.
The thesis also explores how control over the female body and identity can be
exercised through reproductive technology. An examination of the role reproductive
technology plays in contributing to patriarchal dominance, suggests that new
technologies may compel women to conform to stereotypes of femininity based on
pregnancy and motherhood. The thesis considers the impact infertility and the choice
not to have children have on female identity and takes into account the options
available to these women. The main focus, with regard to infertility and choice, is on
the relationship between women who have children and those who do not. This thesis
refutes the notion that there is solidarity between women based on shared childbearing
experience, and focuses on the conflict that occurs between fertile and childless
women. It finds that the conflict that occurs is a result of the socialisation of women
into viewing motherhood as an essential aspect of 'normal' femininity. The thesis also
considers what causes the desire to have children and finds that, as in the case of the
conflict between women, it is as a result of socialisation and an innate/instinctual
biological drive. The thesis investigates options available to women in order for them to avoid
constructing their identities solely around their reproductive function. It considers the
alternatives women are presented with when constructing their identity and how these
may contribute to or liberate them from patriarchal oppression. If they choose to
identify themselves using patriarchal norms, then they are contributing to their
objectification; but if they choose to construct their identity on their own terms, and
offer some resistance to patriarchal constructions, they will be more liberated than
women who conform to stereotypes. Evidence of such resistance can be seen in both
novels in the narrative structure the respective authors have chosen: just as the main
characters subvert traditional stereotypes through the construction of their own
identity, embracing female experience on their own terms, so do both authors subvert
traditional narratives.